Free Sample Essays > European History
Was Napoleon’s success in creating a large empire by 1807 mainly due to his military skills?
slow to load. Napoleon always kept his plans to himself until the very last moment. This meant that Marshals were often confused, causing a weakness in the chain of command. Napoleon relied heavily on soldier’s courage, not ability and, didn’t introduce new training to aid the conscripted French people who had little or no formal military background.
There were other factors in the rise of Napoleon’s empire as well as Napoleon’s own military strength. There was also his use of exploiting rifts between countries in the coalitions. Napoleon would always keep one coalition country as an ally while he fought others. Often, they were tempted by land and, didn’t trust one and other. Only Britain, the isolated island remained an enemy of France for the entirety of the Napoleonic era. France was also able to secure peace treaties like the peace of Amiens (1802) where France agreed to withdraw from the Papal States and Naples. This gave France valuable breathing space. The treaty of Luneville marked the end of the second coalition and the Tsar exasperatedly withdrew his forces from Western Europe. The treaty also made Austria recognise France’s possession of Belgium and Luxembourg. The weaknesses between the allied countries and the destruction of the coalitions made it easier for Napoleon to build upon his empire and conquer all of Europe. Napoleon was also keen on exploiting the weakness of other country’s leaders. For example Tsar Alexander, who proved to be weak and in experienced in battle.
Napoleon’s battles in Europe were helped by the fact that France had the largest population. Napoleon had a pool of 28 million Frenchman whom he could call up at will. These people fought to preserve the revolutionary idealism and liked Napoleon and his victories. As all the battles up until the Spanish campaign were self-financing, they didn’t have to pay taxes, which was a bonus. People in the annexed countries were forced to pay in taxation. Napoleon could loot Cities and towns as he went along. Prussia for example, had to come up with 311 million francs to pay France after their defeat at Jena. They were powerless to agree a peace treaty as Napoleon had one so convincingly. He took cultural artefacts, personal savings, anything that would please his troops and help France’s economy. France’s Economy by now was looking far better. Napoleon had improved the infrastructure while countries like Austria were financially exhausted, making their land easy prey for Napoleon and the Grand Armee.
Lastly, Napoleon was a great believer in luck. Always when a new general or Marshal came along, he would ask, “does he have luck?” Luck seemed to always fall at Napoleon’s feet during the early campaigns, for example the battle of Marengo (1800) where Napoleon was nearly defeated. Napoleon’s rise to ruler of France and conqueror of Europe has a certain degree of luck. However, His military victories were the presiding factor in his [next page]